Review of Boyhood (2014) by Christopher L — 22 Apr 2015

An enjoyable but deeply flawed experiment. While it was an enjoyable experience, the strictly slice of life perspective of the film felt like a wasted opportunity for showing depth of growth of characters in a three hour long movie.

The representation of the single mom versus the dead beat father was decidedly unfair and basically sexist. The father has a long extended monologue at the end of the film which all but blames the single mother for a string of abusive alcoholic husbands and absolves him of any blame re: the raising of the children.

Then, directly afterwards, the mother's last scene with her son (the main character) is short and bitchy, where the film all but confirms the hypothesis of the father. This is the culmination of a narrative that gives the single father tons of time and space to explore his character, but relegates the single mom to roles and never gives her any dialogue to explain her POV.

That and you'd be forgiven for believing America is as white as Sweden with only a single Latino character who exists to be saved by the mother. Worth watching once for the conceit, but not worth revisiting.

(Also, the super trite ending didn't help wash down the film either either.).